The Athens City Council has approved ordinances that allow lofts to be built on upper floors of downtown buildings. One developer has plans for a building at Marion and Hobbs streets. (Contributed by Spirit of Athens)

ATHENS, Alabama - Along with historic storefronts, picturesque shops and quaint eateries, two amenities that aid downtown growth are living spaces and legalized alcohol sales.

Without alcohol sales, it is often difficult to recruit restaurants that stay open after 5 p.m. When a downtown closes its doors at 5, residents who work during the day are unable to enjoy their town except on Saturdays. When Athens voters legalized the sale of alcohol in 2007, restaurants started moving into the downtown square and opening in the evenings, offering a variety of foods and live music, said Trisha Black, director of Spirit of Athens, a downtown revitalization group.

Black said shop owners stay open later during holidays and events, and are experimenting with extended hours throughout the year. For instance, U.G. White Mercantile, which opened as a hardware store in 1917 and now sells a variety of old-fashioned housewares and upscale outdoor items, is open until 6 p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays and 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. It is next door to LuVici's (Loo Vie-sees), a restaurant that serves "Southern comfort" food. Other restaurants include Village Pizza and Casa Blanca.

Columbus, Miss., a downtown success story, helped revitalize its retail district by creating loft apartments, Black said. Huntsville, Florence and Birmingham offer downtown apartments. Athens hopes to be the next city to add loft living spaces.

"When you start having people living downtown, it contributes to its vitality," she said.

Athens City Council members approved a plan in 2011 that would allow developers to build loft apartments on upper floors of downtown businesses, Mayor Ronnie Marks said. Currently, the downtown buildings, often two, three or four stories tall, are occupied only on the ground level by shops or offices, leaving lots of unused space.

To create apartments, sprinkler systems would need to be installed to meet modern fire codes, but Black and Marks said loft apartments will be part of Athens' future.

"They're on target," Marks said. "We have the ordinances in place to help make that happen, and a developer is working on a site at the corner of Hobbs and Marion streets. Any developer who wants to move in that direction, we'll make that happen."

Black said a positive impact of having people living downtown is that the area is never unoccupied. Offices and businesses are open during the day, and people come home to apartments at night, giving business owners a reason to stay open later.